On Multiple Myeloma
Andre's Perspectives

This blog is written by and about a guy with an incurable form of cancer. My purpose here isn't to say "woe is me", but to give insight about my thoughts, perspectives, and experiences throughout this adventure. My name is Andre. My partner's name is Ed. I intend to publish on a pretty regular basis here, but Ed might occasionally pop in with his thoughts too.

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Andre's Obituary Notice

My brother-in-law works for the weekly paper where we had Andre's obituary notice published. It was also mentioned in a roadracing mag...

Saturday, July 25, 2009

4:21 PM

Andre died today in my arms. He was handsome until his very last breath. I've thanked him for the 9 wonderful years we've spent an...

Thursday, July 16, 2009

ICU Day 28

28 days. Andre has been on the ventilator and in the ICU for 28 days. Today is probably the lowest I've felt since the initial diagnosis...

Sunday, July 12, 2009

ICU Day 24

Roobeedoo, Spiritwoman, and Andre's weekend doc all suggested that playing music might help Andre relax. My initial notion was that sil...

Friday, July 10, 2009

ICU Day 22

I'm back in Seattle after being in Vancouver since Wednesday afternoon. I've kept up on Andre's progress by calling the nurses ...

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

ICU Day 20 - AM

Andre was completely sedated when I came this morning. I had another "incident" with a physician today, this time with the new at...

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

ICU Day 18 and 19

Monday and Tuesday are very similar days to a degree. They started weaning Andre off the sedatives and he responded with differing degrees o...

Sunday, July 05, 2009

While you were sleeping...

I want to update Andre on "newsworthy" events he missed while he was recovering from his surgery on June 18. Here is my list so fa...

ICU Day 16 and 17

There isn't much to report on Andre from yesterday, July 4th. His medical team had started tapering off his sedation. They did a CT sc...

Friday, July 03, 2009

ICU Day 15 (The Anniversary Issue)

Exactly 1 year ago, Andre and I celebrated our 8th year anniversary by getting married in Vancouver, Canada. Today, we're celebrating it...

Thursday, July 02, 2009

ICU Day 13 and 14

Today is exactly two weeks after Andre's surgery. There's nothing much to report since it's been a pretty quiet day-and-a-half....

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

ICU Day 12

It's been a quiet day and the night promises to be the same. It's a waiting game right now with the surgeons. As usual, everyone i...

Monday, June 29, 2009

ICU Day 11

When the pulmonary and critical care fellow came in Andre's room this morning he declared, "Let's give Andre a shot at extubati...

Sunday, June 28, 2009

ICU Days 9 and 10

Saturday and Sunday for Andre has been relatively quiet except for short bursts of V-tachs and SVTs everytime he was agitated. The docs hav...

Friday, June 26, 2009

ICU Day 8 - PM

Andre's Versed sedation for tonight is 2x his usual dose. They need him to be more rested for tomorrow's breathing trial. The resp...

ICU Day 8

One step forward, two steps back. That seems to be our story. It's only 10:45 AM in the morning and a lot of things had happened. First...

Thursday, June 25, 2009

ICU Day 7

It's a relatively good day for Andre. He did a spontaneous breathing trial--him breathing on his own--today that lasted for about 35 mi...

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

ICU Day 6

Sorry for the late posting. I went out for a hearty dinner with a former colleague who is also a very close friend of ours. It was good to...

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

ICU Day 5

Andre is still heavily sedated. He seems to be calmer today as well. He did better on his spontaneous breathing trial (SBT) today than yest...

Monday, June 22, 2009

ICU Day 4

Today has been a difficult day for my husband. Andre had a V-tach episode at around 8:30 AM this morning. It took the docs about half-an-...

Sunday, June 21, 2009

ICU Day 3

I have no idea when the pulmonary doctors will take Andre off the ventilator. His arterial blood gas from this morning still showed elevate...

Saturday, June 20, 2009

ICU Day 2

Andre is still intubated. The pulmonary critical care docs decided that Andre's breathing is still too labored to be off the ventilator...

Andre's gifts

Andre gave two gifts this morning. When I checked my cell phone at 8 AM, I noticed a missed call and a voice message time stamped 2:18 AM. ...

Friday, June 19, 2009

ICU Day 1 - PM

The pulmonary critical care (PCC) docs decided to keep Andre attached to the ventilator. Results of his several spontaneous breathing te...

ICU Day 1 - AM

First off, I want to apologize for not responding to those who had left me messages. It's been a crazy 24-hr. Andre still has his breat...

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Today's the day

For those of you who are not on Facebook, here's an update. 11:30 PM -- I'm back in our Seattle house. I'm home late because I ...

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Surgery redux

Tomorrow, Thursday, at 10:30 AM. That's when Andre's surgery will happen if the cardio-thoracic surgeons will not pull a fast one o...

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Andre update

It's a little past 11:30 AM. I've just finish chatting with the attending doc and the PA (a medical practitioner peculiar to the US...

Monday, June 15, 2009

"Non"-Surgery day updates

This is Ed. I'll be updating this specific post every time I hear some news regarding Andre's surgery. Thanks for all the positive...

Friday, June 12, 2009

Final answer

The surgeons and I made a final decision last night. Surgery on Monday.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Batman speaks.

This is Andre. Simple facts in this post, mainly because I've been drugged and tired and 'fat reduced" for some time. I checked...

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Emperor Palpatine or the Virgin Mary?

Andre is still in the hospital. He is still in respiratory isolation which means he's not even allowed to roam the halls of the cancer w...

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Crazy monkey

I absolutely love this thing. It's part of the birthday gift package for Andre from two of our lovely friends. Ed

Andre video

Friday, May 22, 2009

Happy Birthday!!!

Today, May 22nd, is Andre's birthday. He is still in the hospital but is getting better each day. To ALL his readers: please write him...

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

How are you?

In earth terms, it's been a long time since I gave any of you a real update on my physical condition, mental state, position in the univ...

Monday, May 11, 2009

Sunday in the hospital with Andre

We are back in the hospital. Repeat cycle. We're tired. If any of you want to visit, he's in 8NE of the UW Hospital. Call or ema...

Friday, May 08, 2009

It's alive!

Sorry to all of you who get RSS feeds. You're gonna get at least two of these. I've lost my ever-lovin' mind. The drugs have b...

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Tenth night

Ed here, writing from Vancouver. I decided to stay in Canada because it's probably not safe for me to be on the road. I've been dr...

Sunday, May 03, 2009

Still here.

It’s Ed again. Andre is asleep. He’s on his 7th night here in the UW hospital. Visitors are welcome to break the ennui of a confined life...

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Andre's back at the UW Hospital

This is Ed. Andre was on hiatus from blogging because we were enjoying the lull in terms of his myeloma and transplant sequelae. But they ...

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

La mia Divina Commedia

I got bad news from a friend a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday, the news got worse. For allegorical purposes, I'll call him Dante. Dante ...

The cure.

It wasn't long ago that I talked about 'being cured of the cure' or somesuch wording. Let me tell you that today was a perfect e...

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

It's been forever.

It's been a long time since I updated this thing. I could blame it on the fact that life has been moving at a snail's pace here. Not...

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Time

It's time again. Time for another transfusion. It's planned for Monday afternoon at 4pm. Another two units of whole blood. My steroi...

Friday, March 13, 2009

Good and bad

It's been a bit over 4 months since I rode the motorcycle anywhere. Between the weather, hospitalization, and a horrible lack of confide...

Sunday, March 08, 2009

Weekly weakness.

I got a phone call today from the SCCA. Another blood transfusion is scheduled for tomorrow, Monday. It's only been seven days. This is ...

Monday, March 02, 2009

I am .......

Since the recent diagnosis, I've been struck by the need to re-identify myself. Don't misunderstand, I know who I am. People who kno...

Friday, February 27, 2009

Every two weeks....

Every two weeks, just like clockwork, the SCCA calls me to get a blood transfusion. They always call on Friday afternoon. They always schedu...

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

The line in the sand.

I had appointments at the SCCA today. It was a regular visit, but I was also to receive the results of my doctor's "line in the san...

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Lyrics

I've been listening to this song on Sirius Hits for a while and finally decided to post the lyrics. Obviously the song moves me, but it...

Monday, February 16, 2009

Transplant oddity

I've discussed this before, but I'll reiterate: In a limited way, bone marrow transplant patients acquire traits of their donors. Th...

Friday, February 13, 2009

Post - 13th

They did it all today. I got a full series of blood tests, one unit of platelets, two units of whole blood, a complete drug evaluation/inven...

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Friday the 13th

Today is the 12th, so this is the plan for tomorrow, Friday, Feb 13, 2009. No, I'm not superstitious. I'll do a blood test at 10:30...

Monday, February 09, 2009

Diet

The last week has been an odd thing. The trend is toward feeling better, however, a spontaneous sampling on any given hour might show that I...

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Back in Seattle.

I'm in Seattle this afternoon as I have an appointment at the SCCA tomorrow. My little journey was pleasant, but I really don't car...

Monday, February 02, 2009

Energy bar.

I had lots of energy today. I met with a real estate agent about the house, got the truck tested and registered, snooped around the hardwar...

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Venting

Ed got home about 9pm on Friday night. Life was good. Saturday turned into a giant series of SCCA errors again. I really don't know what...

Friday, January 30, 2009

Can they make it more difficult?

I had a blood test at 9:30 this morning. At 4pm I got a call. "We need to give you two units of whole blood tomorrow after a type and ...

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

I agree.

tim's wife wrote: Here's the thing about statistics. I know 2 men whose wives and families were told they had a 0% chance of surviva...

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Candor

Based on my earlier post, I feel I made some good progress with Dr. D. today. Unfortunately I also got a realistic perspective of my reality...

The optimist.

Remember Doctor D, the doctor I had the horrible fight with? She and I had a very interesting conversation today. Essentially, we've bot...

Monday, January 26, 2009

Current events.

I seldom comment on current events, but this really moved me: Texas Judge gives 7 year old right to decide custody. Dallas, TX, December 31,...

Gore

I've had blood tests every day since I got out of the hospital. They called me today to tell me I'd 'graduated' and that I ...

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Bagless

I'm home again. In fact, I got home last night (Tuesday) about 8:30 or 9 pm. P and S drove me home and then we accidentally popped the...

Monday, January 19, 2009

The canary in the cage.

A couple of readers have asked about the treatment I've been getting. The video shows what's going on, but it's not a logical co...

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